Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Google Puts New Focus on Outside Research

By Steve Lohr February 1, 2010 11:10 pmFebruary 1, 2010 11:10 pm

Google, like other leading technology companies, funds university research in fields where its interest and the interest of science coincide. Until now, the company has done that mainly with lots of smaller grants, typically $50,000 or so.

But Google is stepping up its funding. In a focused approach to be announced on Tuesday, the company is making a $5.7 million commitment to a dozen university research projects. The money is earmarked for four areas: machine learning, the use of cellphones as data collection devices in science, energy efficiency in computing and privacy.

“We’ve identified four extremely important areas, both to Google and to society,” said Alfred Spector, the company’s vice president of research and special initiatives.

The unrestricted grants range in size from $100,000 to $1.5 million and are for projects that usually span two or three years to complete. All of the recipients are universities in the United States, other than one to Cambridge University.

The program points to how Google’s research agenda has evolved and expanded. Three years ago, three of the four research areas would not have been on the company’s priority list, Mr. Spector said. The only one that was a priority then and now is machine learning, a vital ingredient in search technology.

Google didn’t have a cellphone operating system three years ago, Mr. Spector said. Data center energy efficiency has become a technical challenge and environmental concern, he said. And privacy, too, is a more pressing issue for Google as it has moved increasingly beyond searching the public Internet to also collecting personal data in its Gmail and calendar services, for example.

Three of the four research groups are in fields where Google could be said to be playing offense: Improvements in machine learning, cellphone data collection and energy efficiency would all help boost the company’s profits.

The fourth area — privacy — has more the look of defense: It is presumably in Google’s interest to promote the development of privacy-handling tools that forestall federal regulations. Four of the 12 research projects are in the field of privacy.

One of privacy projects is at Carnegie Mellon University, where a team led by Lorrie Faith Cranor is conducting technology-and-behavior research into what they call “privacy nudges.” Will people pay a bit more to purchase goods from Web sites that have tighter practices for handling personal data? Early work by the Carnegie Mellon team, which includes Alessandro Acquisti and Norman Sadeh, suggests that they will.

More than half of the users in experiments, Ms. Cranor said, were willing to pay a bit more for goods on Web sites the researchers designated as having better privacy practices. The premium was about 60 cents on a $10 purchase. The percentage went even higher, she noted, when the research involved “privacy-sensitive products,” such as condoms and sex toys.

“We’re trying to understand how people make privacy decisions online, and if there were easy-to-use privacy meters on Web sites, how such tools would influence their decisions,” Ms. Cranor said.